Activity 11: Toilet Paper & Paper Towel Roll Animals
Recycled toilet and paper towel tubes are some of my favorite materials and they are easy to find at home. The charm of these animals is that they are animal-like but still look like cardboard tubes— cylindrical and raw cardboard brown. Though, of course, painting them is a fun thing for you to do! Once you see how many ways there are to cut cardboard tubes, you will come up with tons of ideas of your own! Create a habitat by cutting paper watering holes and cardboard trees. You can draw they eyes with a black maker.
Materials:
- scissors
- paper towel tubes
- pencil
- small pieces of scrap cardboard
- black marker
- glue
1. Cut the lion’s mane by trimming @ 1 1/2” fringes into one
side of a paper towel tube. Fold the fringes back.
2. To make the face, trace a circle onto scrap cardboard,
using the uncut side of the tube as a template. Cut the
circle out inside the traced line. Glue or draw on eyes, a
small triangular nose, and a mouth. Squeeze a thin line of
glue just inside the tube at the mane end and fit the circle
into the tube, as shown. To make the legs, cut off two 1/2"
strips of another paper towel tube. Taper the cut ends of
both the strips. Glue each set of legs under the lion’s torso.
3. Cut a tail from the other tube, and glue it to the body.
1. Sketch a giraffe on a paper towel tube. (The head will fold down.)
2. Use a craft knife to make a starter hole in the tube where it
is hard for scissors to reach. Cut out the giraffe shape.
Fold down the head, fold up the ears, and glue or draw on
eyes.
1. Following the photo, draw a monkey head about 2/3 down
onto a paper towel tube with a little neck. Draw arms going
up and legs and a tail at the bottom.
2. Cut the shapes with scissors, or, if needed, a craft knife to
carefully saw into the tube for areas that are hard to reach
with scissors (like between the monkey’s legs). Cut the
snout out of a scrap from the tube.
3. Bend the neck down and then bend the head up at the
chin. Glue or draw on eyes. Affix the snout with an
glue.
4. Bend down the arms and a small section at the bottoms
of the arms for hands. Bend up the legs, and tail.
1. Draw two lines 3” apart in the center of a paper towel tube
to create the torso. On one side of the tube, draw 4 legs,
two coming off of each line for legs, as in the photo. On
the opposite side of the tube, draw on a head with a long
neck.
2. Cut out the antelope, using a craft knife, if needed, to
carefully saw into the tube for areas that are hard to reach
with a scissors (like between the antelope’s legs). Cut long
skinny strips for antler shapes from scrap cardboard or
another tube.
3. Fold the legs down, the neck and head up and then the
head down.
4. Glue on antlers, and fold at the center. Glue or draw on
eyes.
1. Draw two lines 4” apart in the center of a paper towel tube
to make torso. Draw a trunk coming off one end of the
torso and a tail off the other. Draw two "‘C’ shapes for ears.
2. Cut out the elephant shape. Use a craft knife to carefully
saw into the tube for the ears. Fold the ears forward. Glue
or draw on eyes.
3. To make the legs, cut a 1/2” ring off another paper towel
tube. Cut the ring in half. Glue the legs under the
elephant’s torso, as shown.
4. For a baby elephant, shorten the torso length and cut the
legs shorter.
More Toilet Paper Roll Activities:
What other items can you create? Use your imagination!
References:
